Name Calling

September 07, 2011

We are sorry to report that over our summer hiatus, one of our favorite PopTort topics appeared and we missed telling you about it – namely, name-calling by the Manhattan Institute! And this time, both the ThePopTort and The ABA Blawg 100 (a prestigious list from the ABA Journal that ThePopTort has been honored and most grateful to have made for the last three years) share MI's potshots, to wit: “the ABA Blawg 100 is somewhere behind the ‘Kid's Choice Awards’ in credibility (the brainless ‘Pop Tort’ blog that reflexively promotes the litigation lobby has won over law blogs that break news and provide real analysis.)”

Now we’ve done our best to show the Manhattan Institute all kinds of love (here, here), but it seems all we ever get back are insults! Harsh ones! Someone needs to lighten up over there.

So we would like to try to assist MI by sending out this excellent instructional piece from WikiHow called “How to Lighten Up.” They begin:

Are you taking life too seriously all the time? Perhaps your natural instinct is to answer everything with a very serious tone and to point out the failings of all those around you and to press your politically correct views on others no matter whether it is a birthday, wedding or a work meeting - you just have to mar the occasion by reminding everyone of how much more serious you are, how frivolous and incorrect they are being and well, does that make you feel like a really good person inside? No? Didn't think so...

Don't you wanna feel better about life, MI? Granted, learning to be pleasant won’t be easy. But nothing worthwhile ever is! Good luck!

March 09, 2011

Yesterday, the Center for Justice & Democracy filed an ethics complaint with New York’s Commission on Public Integrity, asking them to investigate several key individuals on Governor Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT). As the complaint notes, the employers of these individuals – hospitals – “will receive a substantial financial benefit from MRT Proposal 131, a proposal that limits the liability of negligent hospitals and health care providers and which has been made part of the Governor’s Budget.” As we noted before, a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages and a brain-damaged baby fund are not just part of the budget – they are hardwired in there thanks to these hospital lobbyists. (See coverage here, here, here, here.)

This was nothing personal and not even attack on the Governor. But his chief guy on the MRT, Jim Itrone, shot back with quite a statement:

"In one of the most absurd stunts, a group has called upon the Commission on Public Integrity to investigate members of the Medicaid Redesign Team for doing what they were asked to do, namely, represent their own interests as part of a stakeholder process. This group, the Center for Justice and Democracy, is devoted to fighting against tort reform of any and all kinds and is closely allied with the trial lawyers. Indeed one of their members, Erin Brockovich, is a paid publicity person for plaintiff's lawyers. The MRT members were not engaged as 'public officers' but as 'stakeholders' -- meaning they represented their own business interests in an advisory capacity. If the Center for Justice is sincere in their belief that members of the MRT violated the public officers law, how do they explain the fact that they served the same role and therefore committed the same violation when they were a member of Governor Spitzer's Medical Malpractice Liability Taskforce in 2007. By the Center's own analysis, they are guilty and we call on the COPI to take action."

(Now, that's not very nice. A bit nasty, wouldn’t you say? A little uncalled for, perhaps? And by the way, isn’t that what the movie was about?)

CJ&D's Executive Director, Joanne Doroshow, responded:

“Mr. Introne, after attacking Erin Brockovich, we fully expect you to start attacking moms and babies. Oh wait, you have already done that. We would like to challenge you to release an affidavit swearing under oath that Medicaid Redesign Team members Jeffrey A. Sachs, paid consultant to large hospitals and health care systems; Michael Dowling, President and CEO of North Shore LIJ Health System; Kenneth E. Raske, President of the Greater New York Hospital Association; and Dan Sisto, President of the Healthcare Association of New York State, have not acted in a manner benefiting their specific employer by voting to permanently cap damages to medical malpractice victims, and transferring the responsibility for monetary damages in brain-damaged babies cases away from negligent hospitals and health care providers and onto insurance consumers. If there has been no such benefit, we would be happy to reconsider our position. If not, we will await the Commission’s findings. And by the way, after you apply the facts to the law, that sound you'll hear is the steel trap closing on you.”

We’re just saying, permanently stripping patients of their legal rights is a huge financial windfall for the hospitals and has nothing to do with Medicaid cuts and shouldn’t have been part of this process and raises some serious ethical issues. What are we missing?

November 09, 2009

If you thought U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” moment during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress was an aberration, think again. This past weekend, as Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) dared to champion the rights of the millions of Americans killed or injured by medical malpractice in this country, the same Neanderthal tactics were back in full force. Watch as Congressman Braley stands at the podium of the U.S. House of Representatives and endures the belligerent grunts of those intent on derailing true health care reform at any cost.

May 21, 2009

Okay, so humor is very subjective. Like in 2004, George Bush’s joke during the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, “those weapons of mass
destruction must be somewhere,” he said as he looked under seat cushions in the Oval Office. That "joke" was thought to be in pretty poor taste as those sent to war continued to die.

In the skit, employees use hairstyle puns to mock their “tough year” –
you know, the one when they had to pull Vioxx off the market because it
caused heart attacks and strokes in thousands of people. For example,
the “hilarious” skit called Eric Topol,
(the lead author in a study that linked Vioxx with an increase in
cardiovascular events) Eric “Toupe,” joking that “Toupe et al
published an article in the Journal of American Mullet Association
examining three Vioxx studies and one dreadlock study."

Except it was not a joking matter when Merck did publish articles from
fake medical journals that sang the praises of their drugs without
stating that the journal-looking articles had been paid for by the
company.

September 18, 2008

Ex-AIG CEO, the legendary Maurice “Hank” Greenberg who was brought down for fraud, liked to blame the insurance industry’s periodic liability insurance “crises” and its price-gouging of policyholders on claims and lawsuits brought by injured people and once even likened the attorneys for injured people to “terrorists.”

On the other hand, we liked to say that insurance industry mismanagement and greed were the real reasons for the insurance “crises” that would hit policyholders periodically.

With the Federal Reserve now taking over AIG because of mismanagement and greed and asking taxpayers to foot the bill for the company’s shoddy business practices at a cost of $85 billion dollars, wonder who was right?

The truth is AIG’s mismanagement stems from the way it makes most of its money, by investing premiums dollars it collects. A lot of its recent investments have failed to pan out (including many related to residential and commercial mortgages). As a result, they can’t afford to pay off their “bad bets” and still honor their commitments to policyholders.

So taxpayers are left holding the bag.

Lost in this, of course, is the notion that companies that make wagers with other people’s money should be held accountable when they fail to assess the soundness of those gambles—not to mention, when they negligently “bet” more money than they have.

Ah well—at least no one is calling civil justice attorneys “terrorists” this time.

One of my favorites was the 2002 release by Physicians Insurers
Association of America attacking Public Citizen for its statistical
report about the insurance industry. And I quote, "Fighting to the
death for the right to chase ambulances and hover over the sick and
dead, this group of wolves in sheep's clothing has turned nothing less
than rabid. Their rantings have gone beyond the bounds of rationality
and descended into the maelstrom of sheer lunacy.” Yes, now there’s a
thoughtful analysis.

Here’s another funny thing. POL writes, “Walter Olson has written
about [Center for Justice & Democracy] over the years, aptly
describing it as a ‘trial lawyer front group'" and they then proceed to
cite themselves. But among the items they cite are two earlier posts
that announce Joanne Doroshow’s participation on the American
Enterprise Institute panel on Hurricane Katrina, at the invitation of
AEI’s Ted Frank!

Maybe they should consider adding Joanne to their Dick Cheney page.
Might enhance the quality a little.

Got a News Tip?

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors only. Any disputes should be addressed to the authors or commentators. The Pop Tort invites comment to further the debate on issues addressed, but we reserve the right to deny or remove any post or comment.